Prestigious Pinks announced at Trinity Sports Awards

Awards were given to exceptional athletes in Trinity clubs, with basketball taking home the Club of the Year award

Five student-athletes have been awards “Pinks” at the Trinity Sports Awards, the highest sporting award bestowed by College.

This year’s Pinks were awarded to Conall Hayes from Athletics, Miriam McGinley from Athletics, Robbie Kearns from the Equestrian Club, Diarmuid McGowan from SubAqua and Manon Nouvain from Fencing. These five new names will now accompany many athletes that have been awarded Pinks over the last 93 years.

“University Pinks” are awarded to well-deserving athletes at Trinity who fulfill a set of strict criteria while competing for a University Club at both inter-collegiate competitions and at an international level. They correspond to the Oxford and Cambridge ‘Blues’, and are awarded to a select few every year who have displayed phenomenal performance while studying in Trinity.

Chair of DUCAC Jemil Saidi announced the winners of the nine Trinity Sports Awards last night on December 9.

Opening the awards, Saidi said: “Congratulations to everyone who was nominated for these awards, it shows great determination and commitment on your part and your peers saw this and have nominated you for this award.”

Those nominated for the Volunteer of the Year Award for this year were Ailbhe Noon from the Camogie Club, Simran Saini from the Volleyball Club and Patrick Lynch from the Rifle Club with Saini being the ultimate winner. Saini volunteered for Volleyball Ireland which included coach training to run social sessions back in college. Her efforts had a large impact on participants and the Trinity club as a whole.

Manus Darby from Basketball, Clodagh Nerney from Karate and Saini again from Volleyball were nominated for the Alum of the Year Award, with Darby winning the category. Darby graduated from Trinity in 2018 and moved to Australia but since then has remained connected to the club. He has been an active mentor to the club and helped steer them on their path to success.

Maria Jimenez from Volleyball won the Coach of the Year Award, beating out Shane Noonan from Camogie and Jamie Headon from Trinity Barbell who were also nominated. She has been with Trinity Volleyball for over 6 years, both as a player and a coach. Her coaching has led the club to many victories and it was said that she has been an inspiration to the team.

The Performance of the Year Award nominees were Laura Stack from Camogie for her performance in the Fr Meaghair Cup Final, James Woods from the Men’s Soccer Farquhar Cup Final and the Men’s Volleyball Intervarsity Team. Stack was given the award for her outstanding play in the Fr Meaghair Cup Final, scoring all but two of the points for Trinity over the weekend. She was also named among the best 15 players over all three divisions for the course of the cup.

A long awaited award was the Best Social Media Campaign of the year 2019/2020. The most votes were cast for this award this year. Among the nominees were Trinity Camogie, DU Kayak and Canoe, Trinity Women’s Rugby and Trinity Barbell, with Trinity Barbell ultimately winning. The campaign helped to grow the female powerlifting team by over 150%.

Next announced was the Club Administrator of the Year Award. Heather Doyle from Camogie, Aisling O’Driscoll from Basketball, Patrick Devaney from DU Kayak and Canoe, Mark Escoto from Volleyball and Eszti Lujber from the Rifle Club were all nominated for this year’s award. Escoto eventually came out on top when the votes were in. He managed the difficult task of keeping the club organised and active among all of the changes that the pandemic has brought.

The Camogie team won the team of the year award this year, beating out the Volleyball Women’s SSI League Team and the Women’s Varsity Basketball Team. They won the Fr Meaghair Championship cup this past year after being runners up last year which was a great achievement for the team as a whole.

Stack again from Camogie, Edel Thornton from Basketball and Jill Pitcher Farrell from DU Kayak and Canoe were nominated for the Sports Person of the Year award. Thornton won for her outstanding performance in both the basketball club and Trinity Meteors and was awarded Player of the Month from Basketball Ireland in December 2019 for Women’s Division I and NBCC’s Female Player of the Year.

Finally, the Club of the Year Award was announced and awarded to the Basketball Club, with Camogie, DU Fencing and Sub Aqua having also been nominated. The men’s team was promoted from Division III and qualified for varsities for the first time in years and the women’s varsity team had an undefeated season.

Shannon McGreevy

Shannon McGreevy is the Online Editor of Trinity News and a Senior Sophister student of Biochemistry.